Jean-Baptiste Nothomb
|birth_place = Messancy, France (now Belgium) |death_date = |death_place = Berlin, Germany |party = Liberal Party |alma_mater = University of Liège }} Jean Baptiste, Baron Nothomb (3 July 1805 – 6 September 1881) was a Belgian statesman and diplomat, the sixth Prime Minister. Life Revolution Born at Messancy in Luxembourg on 3 July 1805, he was educated at the Athénée de Luxembourg and the University of Liège, and was in Luxemburg when the Revolution of August broke out, but was nominated a member of the commission appointed to draw up the Constitution. Nothomb became a member of the national congress, and became secretary-general of the ministry of foreign affairs under Érasme-Louis Surlet de Chokier. He supported the candidature of the Orléanist Louis, Duke of Nemours, and joined in the proposal to offer the crown to King Stanislaus III of Poland, being one of the delegates sent to London. When the Eighteen Articles of the Treaty of London were replaced by the Twenty-four less favorable to Belgium, he insisted on the necessity of compliance, and in 1839 he faced violent opposition to support the territorial cessions in Limburg and Luxemburg, which had remained an open question so long as the Netherlands refused to acknowledge the Twenty-four Articles. Later life His Essai historique et politique sur la révolution belge (1838) won for him the praise of Palmerston and the cross of the Legion of Honor from French king Louis Philippe. In 1837 he became minister of public works, and to him was largely due the rapid development of the Belgian railway system, and the increase in the mining industry. In 1840 he was sent as Belgian envoy to the German Confederation, and in 1841, on the fall of the Lebeau ministry, he organized the new cabinet, reserving for himself the portfolio of minister of the interior. In 1845 he was defeated, and retired from the Belgian Parliament, but he held a number of diplomatic appointments before his death in Berlin. Honours * : Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Albert the Bear.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 * :Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 * :Knight 1st Class; Order of the Red Eagle.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 * : Knight Grand Cross in the Legion of Honour.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 * Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 * Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Zähringer Lion.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 * Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Charles III.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 * Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Saint Michael.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 * Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Philip the Magnanimous.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 * : ** Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Christ.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 ** Officer in the Order of the Tower and Sword.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 * : Knight Grand Cross in the Saxe-Ernestine House Order.Almanach royal officiel: 1875 * Officer in the Order of the Southern Cross .Almanach royal officiel: 1875 References * * }} Category:1805 births Category:1881 deaths Category:Alumni of the Athénée de Luxembourg Category:Barons Nothomb Category:Belgian historians Category:Belgian Ministers of State Category:Liberal Party (Belgium) politicians Category:Members of the National Congress of Belgium Category:Grand Crosses of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order Category:Order of the Oak Crown recipients Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Zähringer Lion Category:Recipients of the Order of Albert the Bear Category:People from Messancy Category:Prime Ministers of Belgium Category:University of Liège alumni Category:19th-century historians